Fun Facts about I Am Ocilla story world:

• There is nudity, almost nudity, puking, crying, bleeding, sliminess, a little gas and a some crying peppered throughout. Life is a mess and a good story ought to be also.

• In I Am Ocilla there are Stones of The Son. They are made of a quartz-like crystal. Quartz means sun.

• I Am Ocilla contains 5 kingdoms…5 being the number of children I have.

• The Krakens of Krakatoa are not giant squids. Most live on the volcanic island kingdom to the south.

• In I Am Ocilla there is a kingdom called Krakatoa. Yes, I know there really is a volcanic island by that name and used it for that very reason. Plus, it matched the dragon-like Krakens and is their kingdom.

• Krakens were inspired by my eldest son’s crack. It all started in the middle of writing the book and I had to go back and alter the story to make it work. Why his crack? During the many hours and months we built our house on the mountain, my son had a bad case of “plumber”. It was hot and all of us had lost a good amount of weight. My daughter told him he needed to put the Crack-in away. My son, having my DNA, placed a pair of sunglasses on his behind and gave something like a puppet show by the crack of his butt. Mr. Kraken was born. The rest is history.

• I Am Ocilla was actually my Momma’s idea. Months before I started writing it she had a dream about a tree and a girl. A few months later I dreamed the same. I called Momma and asked if she minded me stealing her idea and making it my own. Momma has always been an inspiration to me.

Fun Facts about the characters of I Am Ocilla: A few of you know, but it is worth mentioning again, many of the characters in my book are inspired by people I adore. Most prominent being my children.

• There are five Keepers in I Am Ocilla. Each one guards a prophecy and a doorway to open a locked kingdom. Only the Chosen One can open the doorways.

• Ocilla=my daughter Priscilla

The name Ocilla is from my daughter Priscilla…I call her Cilla. This morphed in my brain to Ocilla and just so happens to fit perfectly with the story. A little too perfectly to be my own doing. Really, I’m not that talented. But I do happen to have the greatest WRITER in existence in my corner, and He does things with my imagination that can’t be explained. All I have to do is open myself to that. Good times!

• Tan-Fur=my son Peyton.

• Tiana=my niece.

• Mari=my daughter Madison.

• Lullaby=another niece.

• Willy-Hoo= my Pop.

• Lulu=my Granny.

• Lenora=my sister.

• Nicolai=my son Nick.

• Autumn=another niece.

• Walter=my brother.

• Alexander=my nephew.

• Genevieve and Jacqueline= two more nieces.

• Dibby= a cousin.

• Drakko=my oldest son Quinton.
• Amber= another niece.

• The Mighty Quinn=my husband.

The king of Krakatoa was inspired by my husband. Actually, he started out bad (the king) because at the time I was developing the character I was also mad at my husband. Petty? Yes, very much so but also true. Don’t worry, my husband and I made up in a blink…we always do. Then I had to work with the monster I created in words and that wasn’t quite as simple.

There are so many more that have inspired me. I am blessed with wonderful, funny and loving family.

Fun Facts about I am Ocilla cover:

• The eye you see is my daughter Priscilla’s eye.
• My daddy took the picture of my daughter.
• Keven Newsome drew the dragon in Ocilla’s eye.

Fun Facts about I Am Ocilla chapter titles:

• Each chapter of I Am Ocilla is titled with one word.

• Each word starts with the letter D and reflects something about the chapter.

• There are 41 chapters.

Any idea how hard it is to find 41 D-words that make sense to those chapters?

Fun Facts about writing I Am Ocilla:

• I find I can never verbally tell people how much they really mean to me. So I Am Ocilla is a tribute to those I hold close to my heart. There is even a recently added tribute to one of my favorite movies. Yes, I am silly like that.

• I Am Ocilla was written over 18 months in two different states, 1/2 in Texas and 1/2 in Oklahoma. There was over a year between when I wrote the first half of the book and second.

• I Am Ocilla was written on an old laptop. When I was finished the battery had died and it had to stay plugged in, the D button stuck along with several others. My husband joked that I had to really mean the words I typed and that must come out in “hammering” the keys.

As a matter of fact, at one point I meant to say sweat “dripped” and typed “ripped”. A friend loved that so much, I kept it.

• The opening paragraphs of I Am Ocilla were written months before I began writing the story. I was in a “Blah” mood from winter weather and remember whens. I typed it out in minutes. It’s changed very little since then.